Sky has wierd diamonds on clouds

Sky is having weird star shapes on the clouds and get smaller when I increase sky rendering or bigger when I decrease? =/

These types of graphic issues usually turn out to be something to do with the graphics card/chip and or drivers.

The usual response is to make sure you have the latest drivers installed as supplied by the graphics chip maker. Not always the automatically installed ones. i.e. go to website, lookup drivers, download and install latest.

If that fails, try the drivers before the latest. Could also be a failing card/chip. As the last thing to try. Open PC, remove and put back the card which will re-seat it.

However, I could be totally wrong but that's where I'd start unless someone can solve the problem here and now in the next post.. Please continue.

The OP did not state what video card manufacturer he/she has. If it's an ATI, then the problem could be related to VBO. The common fix for that is turning VBO off in preferrences. Edit menu > preferrrences > graphics tab > hardware button > uncheck "Vertex Buffer Object (VBO). Apply out and close the box.

However I want to say from the picture it does not look like what most people report and show for a VBO problem. It won't hurt to try though.

XFX Radeon HD 4870 1GB, just got it back from RMA for a new fan card is only 3 months old and just installed latest driver.

I found a simple work around for now.

Preferences > Graphics Tab > Uncheck Basic Shaders

The "star" pattern appears on non 'atmosphere' items when "Atmospheric Shaders" are checked.

I noticed the Star Pattern in the sky when I upgraded my Catalyst drivers

Catalyst™ Version 09.12

Win7 Pro 64-bit, Crossfired ATI 1gig 4870's, SL viewer (Second Life 1.23.5 )

I played with a lot of settings in Catalyst and SL, but only the shaders seemed to have any effect.

I have the same problem! I run with ATI 4890 and also win 7 and the newest drivers. tryed ati-driver 09.11 and 09.12). I didnt have this problem before. i think maybe its something with the new Viewer update we got not so long ago. becose as i say i didnt see this before and i had 09.11 driver installed some time now. I will try to install the "normal" viewer and have a go. But only thing sux with that, is i have so many things on my AV now, that only Emerald can show

ok i installed 9.10 now. and it seems to work. i have everything on max settings. Im not 100% sure with 9.11. but i stick with this 9.10 till they sort out the driver or the viewer. I just hope my other games runs good still with this driver

I had this problem for moths of odd, triangles and spikes and all that showing up on all avvies, myself, and from walls, alot of times I'd get them pasted over my screen to where I couldn't see and I would have to zoom out and move the camera, reseting it afterwards as a temporary fix, that shutting off VBO got rid of it immediately. Thank you.

I think that 9.12 can leave some crud behind that screws up 9.11 if there isn't a nice clean uninstall first. This problem started showing up just as 9.12 came out.

Confirmed and more details...

After updating to the 9.12 Catalyst drivers, I too noticed the same star-pattern in the sky. Additionally, I noticed that underwater everything was grey - objects, textures, everything a flat grey unrendered nothingness. As long as the camera was above water, everything looked normal - in shallow pools and lagoons for example - but once the camera dipped below the surface, whamo.

I tried turning off Basic Shaders and it worked, but killed other rendering details, so I switched it back on and only shut off Atmospheric Shaders, and that fixed both the star-pattern problem and the underwater camera strangeness. The only thing it disabled was the Mesh Detail for Sky - no biggie.

I have this problem...appeared when i installed 9.12...now i cant find a older version anymore...anyone got a link to one for 9.10 ? i have 4850 and win7 ultimate.

Try here:

http://support.amd.com/us/Search/results.aspx?k=catalyst%209.10

Same problem here with an ATI 4890 and 9.12 drivers, the sky looks exactly the same as the OP's link, blue stars everywhere.

Yes I have just recently upgraded from vista to win 7 I have a XFX Radeon HD 4870 HD-487A-ZHFC 1GB updated to 9.12 have tried going back to 9.11 and same issue, I even get some weird graphic issues on sims 3 but games like counter strike source or garry's mod work fine.

http://s780.photobucket.com/albums/yy89/smr192009/

Can you try going back to 9.10?

Did you run a driver cleaner after uninstalling the driver that isn't working?

yeah still having same problem =/ but the sky doesn't have the weird shapes in the clouds anymore

Well, this problem needs to be adressed, because I have the same problem. Guess there is some fixing to be done.

No one is going to get any help resolving their problems with an issue like this by assuming that LL is going to do something to fix it..........if what everyone is chiming in with "me too" is the same problem as the OP it's a graphics card or graphics card driver problem. LL cannot fix that for you......you have to fix it. There has been a number of suggestions, questions answered, even a link of two to where video drivers can be found that would help resolve the problems.

If you are going to chim in with a "me too" then, at least give some computer specs, what driver version you are using, what you've tried. Ziggy, Suezanne asked if you tried the 9.10 driver version for your card.......you haven't bothered to answer. Delta, we don't even know what card you have.......actually we don't know if you even have the same problem.

This thread has pretty much run it's course for the OP (at least nothing has been said by him/her so that's the logical assumption). So, is everyone else with the "me too" problems talking about the same thing? Have any of you actually tried any of the suggestions mentioned? Linden Lab cannot fix something that is not their problem......and we cannot help you fix a problem that is on your end without something to go on. "Me too" don't cut it. And waiting for LL to fix it is going to be a very long wait. It's up to you to help yourself.

What problem?

If I say I have the same problem then I do have the same problem because I am using a ATI4800 series of graphic cards with the same Catalyst 9.12 Drivers that the guys at the PC shop installed on my pc after Vista crashed and I had to get everything back on track. Also you tell me that I should DOWNGRADE the drivers because SL is the only program that has graphic issues? That is not very effective if you ask me while it would mean I might mess up the graphic of other programs that are just running fine, so all I ask is that LL updates its fucking viewer and get the rendering software straighten out so they can get rid of the problem.

Why is it that whenever there is a problem on the user side, we do have to help ourselves, why does the end-user always have to fix things themselves when the product is faulty from the get go? Graphic driver updates need to be expected and as you can see I am not the only one that has this problem, so it would make more sense that LL updates its viewer to fix this problem and not force the users to downgrade their graphic card drivers.

I bet the majority of ATI graphic card users do have this problem and I am not going to downgrade it because I just went through a damaged Vista that had a destroyed registry because I uninstalled a program so I am not going to go through that again by uninstalling the card drivers just to fix some bug in Second Life.

Then it's like I said.........you'll have to figure a way to fix it yourself. It is not LL's problem that your graphics card does not work with a particular driver.........that's a problem created by the graphics card manufacturer (ATI in this case). Graphics drivers come out to fix or address bugs or introduce more features or enhancements to existing features.........they also have a "one size fits all" tune to them (one driver for several models and series). "Upgrading" to a new driver should be done ONLY if there is a feature that is necessary for your system or you are experiencing problems with your existing driver (that's for any driver, not just video). If your current driver is doing everything you need it to do and you are not having problem, it's ALWAYS best to leave it alone. Going back to a driver that works in NOT downgrading.......it's called proper system maintenance. If you don't want to do that then that's your right............but you won't get the best performance out of your system either.

So back to your problem. The diamonds and triangles is a VBO problem with ATI cards (actually ATI could fix the issue if they took OpenGL more seriously.......which, after at least a year, they seem to be doing). It's not a problem with SL...........the fix is to turn off VBO in your preferrences. Also there is a know issue with the driver versions Catalyst 9.12 and 9.11..........they have problems with OpenGL programs (OpenGL is the type of graphics program SL is). The fix is to uninstall those drivers and install Catalyst 9.10.

Now, if you don't want to do either of those things then you won't fix your problem. Eventually ATI may get around to creating a driver version that works properly with all features and functions of SL so if you keep "upgrading" your video driver you'll finally "fix" it..........but that could be a long wait. And by the time ATI gets around fixing their problem SL will probably be requiring something from your card that a new driver will "fix". SL is a pretty advanced program..........it won't stand still for any other technology to catch up.

It seems pretty obvious the bugs are in ATI's drivers, not Second Life.

ATI users might do well to contact ATI about these issues.

That's not exactly true. But ATI is certainly the main culprit.

Have tried going back to 9.10 and still having the problems Ive had before, but the star shapes in the clouds are gone. I am also having graphical corruption on the sims 3 and same problems with sl even on a different viewer openlife. I have had some problems like my shoes not rezzing properly and looking jagged like on vista but sims 3 ran perfectly fine but I have had theese problems when I upgraded to windows 7, I had 9.12 on both vista and reinstalled it on windows 7 when I did a clean install of the os.

Windows 7 32bit Home Premium (build 7600 version 6.1)
AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ 3.1ghz
4GB PC2 6400 800mhz ram
XFX Radeon HD 4870 1GB XFX HD-487A-ZHFC
even though its not a directx 11 card I had directx 11 installed on vista and of course on win 7 seeing how it comes with it



http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/yy89/smr192009/Screenshot-2.jpg

http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/yy89/smr192009/Screenshot-3.jpg

http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/yy89/smr192009/Snapshot2_001.jpg

http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/yy89/smr192009/Snapshot4_001.jpg

http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/yy89/smr192009/Snapshot5_001.jpg

http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/yy89/smr192009/Untitled1.jpg


I have also found a forum post with this similar problem you can find here https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-16412


I have posted on this sl forum too see if anyone knew a fix and have tried the sugestions but so far, at least for me, I am still having the same problem and yes apparently its a driver issue and or a problem with windows 7 and seems to be alot of people having problems, we may just have to wait for them to fix the driver or come out with a win 7 update or service pack. Untill then I will try going all the way back to 8.1, I also never installed the onboard graphics driver (ASRock A780GMH/128M) so I will try that also, and if I still have the same issues I will just leave it untill some fix is released.

@ziggy
Try one of my viewers, either Rainbow or Cool, and see if there is a difference. They both have OpenGL modifications and run reportedly from 35...100% faster, especially on ATI cards but also others. But I don't know if this helps on Windows 7. You can install them in parallel to other viewers. Link below and a feedback would be nice.